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Strike hits CLG head office

The head office of the Department for Communities and Local Government has been hit with a picket line by workers on strike.

Protestors told Inside Housing they had successfully stopped around 20 people from crossing the picket line at Eland House in central London this morning.

The strike is part of a day of action by public sector staff angry at changes to pensions and job cuts.

Rachel Edwards, branch secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union at CLG, said: ‘A lot of people have come and supported us who I was expecting to cross the picket line. The strike is two-fold for civil servants.

‘Obviously the pension issue is the main issue that unites the four main unions but in the CLG it’s about the fact they made so many job cuts and people will lose their jobs through voluntary or compulsory redundancies.

‘That will have a major impact on the government ability to deliver the Big Society. We are the lead department for the Big Society and we are being cut so staff will not be in a position to deliver it.’

Spot on McMadman - when the toilets no longer flush and the streets are impassable, only then will those accusing the public sector of serving no purpose begin to realise what we all do. Without the public sector the entire economy will grind to a shuddering halt - and if that is what it is going to take then better sooner than later. Likewise, the sooner the private sector workers catch on to the fact that our fight is for their benefit to, and if they join us then their gains will be quicker, then the sooner we can all get back to living better lives.

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